MARK HUGHES says there will be no financial meltdown if QPR are relegated. There will be no firesale of players and he will stay as well.

Mark Hughes says there will be no financial meltdown if QPR are relegated []

With Joey Barton, Bobby Zamora, Shaun Wright-Phillips and others on big contracts, QPR’s wage bill is very much Premier League, even if some players’ performances have not been.

Chief executive Philip Beard said the club will keep their star names even if they go down and manager Hughes reinforced that yesterday.

He said Beard’s premature talk of relegation reminded him of his days at Manchester City and working with the then chief executive, Garry Cook, who suffered from “foot in mouth disease”.

Hughes said: “Those things pop into your head at inopportune moments. It’s just a slip of the tongue. We’re all allowed Garry Cook moments.

“Relegation is not something we’re thinking of – and certainly not something Phil believes is going to happen.

“Irrespective of the situation we find ourselves in at the end of the season, we can fulfil our obligations financially.

It’s just a slip of the tongue. We’re all allowed Garry Cook moments

Mark Hughes

“Will I be here next season regardless of what happens? That’s my intention. I’m here to build the club and make sure that, long term, QPR are healthy on and off the field.”

Hughes faces one of the toughest times of his managerial career with eight games, five of them against the top five, to save their season, starting with Arsenal today. Djibril Cisse is suspended but Barton may return after being dropped for the last Saturday’s defeat at Sunderland.

Arsenal are seeking an eighth successive Premier League win and Arsene Wenger believes securing third spot and an automatic Champions League place will boost his hopes of keeping Robin van Persie and Theo Walcott and signing top talent.

“Finishing third is massive,” said Wenger. “These players want to win things and want to be in a team who have a chance. Our end of season will help me to convince them that they can do that here.

“We will talk to the players at the end of the season and do the job we have to do before the Euros start.”

But he has hit out at UEFA and branded their decisions “a joke” after being given his third touchline ban inside 12 months.

Wenger will appeal his three-match suspension and a £33,340 fine for confronting referee Damir Skomina after the Gunners were knocked out of the Champions League by AC Milan.

“I will appeal straight away because the ban is not justified,” said Wenger. “They have transformed UEFA competition referees to be untouchable icons, where you cannot even have a word.

“When you have 25 years consecutively in Europe, you can still surely ask the referee about a decision and have some discussion with him.”